Another first for Frodo yesterday. I took him to the cinema for the first time, to see Transformers.
We're very lucky in that we have a local one screen cinema that is a 2 minute walk around the corner from our house. This meant that I could take Frodo straight there when I got back from work.
We decided that to keep his attention he would need to see something with a lot of action, that was easy to follow, and few slow bits, or mushy scenes in between the action - ideally, if possible, with some spaceships. Transformers seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
The only reservation that I had, was that the rating was a 12A. This means that under 12's can see the film, but must be accompanied by an adult. The description was 'Moderate Violence'. We'd decided against Spiderman 3, which had the same rating, when we saw a trailer, since Venom looked a bit scary. The transformers trailer looked a bit wham, bang, pow, crash, wallop, budda budda budda (that's a machine gun sound for those who don't know), but that should be fine for an almost six year old.
It turned out to be the right decision. I think that I enjoyed the film almost as much as Frodo did. I expected the plot to be really trite, but although it was uncomplicated, it turned out to be really well thought out. Perhaps it also helped that I was watching it with a small, very excited boy, which added to the fun.
The opening scenes really grabbed his attention before anything got blown up. The introduction of the Geek, and the girl he'd be trying to get didn't drag on too long before the inevitable "Dad - the car's a robot". I hadn't told him beforehand what was going to happen :-)
The effects were great - the Autobots and Decepticons were really convincing.
The 12A rating was about right, but I think that we made the right decision. One word was used in a comic moment, that I might not have wanted Frodo to repeat, but he didn't pick up on it. Lots of violence and destruction, but a lot less gore than in the average Dr Who episode. It was demonstrated that people were getting hurt, although it was made very clear that the Autobots were trying to prevent this from happening.
Frodo jumped right out of his seat at one unexpected collision. Rather than being scared - he found this hilarious.
He was leaping up and pointing at the screen during the final scenes, pointing out where the bad guys were, and shouting out this information to the good guys.
There was only about 20 people in the cinema, and I'd deliberately chosen a seat towards the back near the aisle, in case Frodo needed to leave for any reason.
We came out of the dark cinema, blinking in the bright sunlight. I grabbed a free poster on the way out, which is now on Frodo's bedroom wall.
On the way home I asked him which cars on the street were going to turn into robots. He said "No they're not!", so I guess that he understands it's all just pretend.
I think that we've solved the problem of what to get him for his Birthday. Just hope that I can figure out how to transform the toys.
Verdict - This film is not just for the kids, and if you like action films it's well worth seeing.
4 comments:
Sounds like you had a great time :-)
I can't remember how old I was, but the first film I was taken to see was 'Oliver'. Apparently I screamed the place down in tears when Bill Sykes started yelling at Nancy.
I think that my first film was a double bill of "Jungle Book" and "Paint Your Wagon".
I can remember not being heavy enough to keep the folding seat completely down when I sat right back in it. Frodo did exactly the same.
One thing that seems even stranger now is remembering going to the pictures with some family friends. I can't remember the film, but I do remember Uncle Stan blowing smoke rings from his cigar into the beam of the projector.
Post a Comment